We support the organization of tenant in the area of Liščina and Bedřiška. The two communities are linked by the fact that the area and their tenancies are managed by a large landlord. What are they facing and with what aim are they organizing?
LIŠČINA
Liščina is a neighborhood in Ostrava built after the Second World War, mainly for miners. So-called Finnish houses are wooden semi-detached houses that were built here to quickly cover the demand for housing after the war. The locals spent their lives here and invested a lot of money and labor in repairs. Thanks to them they are still good for living.
The whole neighborhood is in the ownership of the Swedish company Heimstaden from 2020.
The local tenants in the Liščina neighborhood addressed INN in 2023. They were scared and confused. Some of them started receiving letters with the proposal for the purchase of houses for a very high price. Purchase was a dream of many from 1990s when many properties in the country were privatized by the sitting tenants. Other locals did not receive any information about the plans of Heimstaden. Many elder tenants had fears about the future of the locality and their lives.
The locals did not give up and got organized! In 2023 we united the forces and started to put pressure on Heimstaden. We address the CEO in the Czech Republic and Sweden with a public letter calling for negotiations signed by almost 40 European organizations working in the field of housing crisis. We received no answer either from the Czech or Swedish side. We made a protest in front of Heimstaden and again received no answer. Then we went public with the stories of the locals, which you can find on our YouTube. Heimstaden’s boss Jan Rafaj finally reacted with the proposal of negotiations. The group consisting of the local female tenants managed to negotiate lower prices for purchase and promise of no eviction.
Some of the demands were met. The prices of purchases went ⅓ lower than the original price and nobody was evicted. However, our demand for special treatment for elder tenants was not heard. Today, the locals do not face direct danger. But no one knows what Heimstaden could be up to in the future.
A photodocumentation from the happening in front of the Heimstaden building organized by the tenants of Liščina.
BEDŘIŠKA
Berdřiška is a well-organized community in Ostrava that is struggling against evictions for many years. The area is owned by the city which continuously tries to push the local tenants out despite some of them are living here for more than 25 years. The local tenants are living here in the so-called Finnish houses are wooden semi-detached houses that were built here to quickly cover the demand for housing after the war. The community blossoms with activities for children and for elders and people of different ethnicities are living in peace with each other. According the them, the plan of the city is to evict all the tenants, to sell the land and to earn money on it by this destroying the local community.
During another wave of evictions in the Autumn of 2024, Iniciativa decided to make a small campaign to support Berdřiška. We fundraised for the lawyer’s services that Berdřiška needed. Despite the stated duration of one month, we managed to collect the sum required in just one week! We also went public with the stories of Berdřiška tenants, which you can find on our YouTube channel.
Medialization and financial support are helpful for the locality: they got more signatures on their petition and managed to pay lawyers to continue their fights. However, the future of Berdřiška is unknown – the pressure of the city is very strong and there is ignorance instead of communication from the side of municipal politicians. The only one thing is clear – Berdřiška resists for so long because it is organized and it is not alone!
One of the visits at Bedřiška community.